Thursday, June 20, 2013

Kaffe Fassett - A Life in Colour 50 years of Textile Art

I had some unexpected free time whilst I was in London recently, so I did a Zadie and sped around the city pavements in order to tick off three places on my To Do Next Time in London list.

The first was the exhibition, Kaffe Fassett - A Life in Colour 50 years of Textile Art, at the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey. The exhibition is on until June 29th and I was delighted to use my free-from-the Daily-Telegraph three month Art Pass and get in half price. The free passes are still available here though with slightly different terms and conditions, but worth it if you have a list of exhibitions to see.

I still find it oddly unsettling that these areas of London, like Bermondsey, run-down and derelict for much of my London life in the 1960s and 70s, are now very fashionable and upmarket. Affordable though they may have been, we would no more have gone for a student nursing flat in Bermondsey than we would have done in Whitechapel where we were working, choosing instead to live in the comparitive safety of a nurses home. Now we should be so lucky, we couldn't afford any of it.

Look for the Shard I had decided, but obvious though it should be I was a while finding it around London Bridge thanks to roadworks and pavement diversions, but when you do spot it expect to put your neck out trying to see the top...The exhibition was predictably superb and the first time that I have seen Kaffe's own work in close-up. Photography without flash was permitted so the pictures may not be as clear as I would like, the ones that are were a consequence of my flash going off on a frolic of its own (and yes, I did get 'told') but in a way the less distinct represents quite accurately the blur of colour compressed into a confined space. It was so spectacular there were times when I had to stop and draw breath...Clever exhibiting did things like wrapping quilts around pillars to best utilise the space..

Others were hung more traditionally...The light here seeming to emphasise the use of light and shade in the quilt, fabric chiaroscuro, whilst cushions and small artefacts were set off to great effect in these cubby holes.

Plenty of work heaped around in seeming nonchalent fashion too, yet obviously placed with care.It was good to see things in close-up too..

Are you all coloured out yet??

Sorry, it's a bit like it though isn't it, almost too much to take in, and just the chairs to go in that case...Next stop - Borough Market

Comments

I had some unexpected free time whilst I was in London recently, so I did a Zadie and sped around the city pavements in order to tick off three places on my To Do Next Time in London list.

The first was the exhibition, Kaffe Fassett - A Life in Colour 50 years of Textile Art, at the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey. The exhibition is on until June 29th and I was delighted to use my free-from-the Daily-Telegraph three month Art Pass and get in half price. The free passes are still available here though with slightly different terms and conditions, but worth it if you have a list of exhibitions to see.

I still find it oddly unsettling that these areas of London, like Bermondsey, run-down and derelict for much of my London life in the 1960s and 70s, are now very fashionable and upmarket. Affordable though they may have been, we would no more have gone for a student nursing flat in Bermondsey than we would have done in Whitechapel where we were working, choosing instead to live in the comparitive safety of a nurses home. Now we should be so lucky, we couldn't afford any of it.

Look for the Shard I had decided, but obvious though it should be I was a while finding it around London Bridge thanks to roadworks and pavement diversions, but when you do spot it expect to put your neck out trying to see the top...The exhibition was predictably superb and the first time that I have seen Kaffe's own work in close-up. Photography without flash was permitted so the pictures may not be as clear as I would like, the ones that are were a consequence of my flash going off on a frolic of its own (and yes, I did get 'told') but in a way the less distinct represents quite accurately the blur of colour compressed into a confined space. It was so spectacular there were times when I had to stop and draw breath...Clever exhibiting did things like wrapping quilts around pillars to best utilise the space..

Others were hung more traditionally...The light here seeming to emphasise the use of light and shade in the quilt, fabric chiaroscuro, whilst cushions and small artefacts were set off to great effect in these cubby holes.

Plenty of work heaped around in seeming nonchalent fashion too, yet obviously placed with care.It was good to see things in close-up too..

Are you all coloured out yet??

Sorry, it's a bit like it though isn't it, almost too much to take in, and just the chairs to go in that case...Next stop - Borough Market

Constants...

Team Tolstoy

Team TolstoyA year-long shared read of War & Peace through the centenary year of Count Lyev Nikolayevich Tolstoy's death, starting on his birthday, September 9th 2010.
Everyone is welcome to board the troika and read along, meeting here on the 9th of every month to chat in comments about the book.

Team Tolstoy BookmarkDon't know your Bolkonskys from your Rostovs?
An aide memoire that can be niftily printed and laminated into a double-sided bookmark.

Port Eliot Festival

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